Chinese Indonesians under Jokowi: Flourishing Yet Unsettling

Enny Ingketria

doi:10.4236/jss.2018.67009

Abstract

From the Dutch colonial times until the end of Suharto era, Chinese Indonesians had gone through a series of institutional racism, as well as racial prejudice and discrimination, but Suharto’s New Order period was portrayed by some scholars as the toughest situation most Chinese Indonesians had to deal with at that time. If during the reign of Suharto, they found few accesses to express their Chinese identity, after the fall of Suharto, they were given more alternatives to articulate their Chinese-ness, either through media products or cultural activities. Nonetheless, in the first six years of post-Suharto era, the political and economic conditions were not yet stable, while the residual prejudice against Chinese Indonesians and the shadow of cultural trauma remained. Since previous studies have merely focused on the negative stereotypes towards ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, this research elaborates the identity formation of Chinese Indonesians during the administration of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), who is popularly known as pluralist figure. By using in-depth interview and participant observation to 30 participants who were mostly fourth generations of Chinese Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians today are still facing identity dilemma, in which they were predisposed to hide their ethnic identity, yet they were inclined to recover the image of Chinese identity in public. The cultural long-distance nationalism observed indicates that the younger generations of Chinese Indonesians nowadays have indeed strong emotional ties to their ancestral homeland.

Highlights

To find out if the post imprisonment of Ahok has an impact on the identity negotiation of the younger generations of Chinese Indonesians, links to screening questionnaire were shared through both social media and e-mail
Chinese Indonesians has experienced a positive state of mind and self-confident in the first two years of Joko Widodo (Jokowi) administration, and self-effacement in the last one and a half year of Jokowi era, due to Ahok’s two-year imprisonment
The cultural long-distance nationalism can be observed through their effort to improve the image of Chinese identity and the cultural activities held in order to emphasize the existence of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia

Summary

Introduction

Throughout Indonesia’s history, Chinese Indonesians were overwhelmed by insecurities and anxiety, due to the perpetual racial prejudice, stereotype, and discrimination addressed by pribumi. After the fall of Suharto, the rigid restrictions have been lifted and Chinese Indonesians have more accessed to Chinese culture and language. Those previous studies that paid more attention on Chinese Indonesians’ identity in post-Suharto era mostly emphasized on the residual stereotype and prejudice [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. There has not been a more focused research on identity of Chinese Indonesians under the incumbent President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi)

Methods

Results

Conclusion